Original author(s) | Gerald Combs[1] |
---|---|
Developer(s) | The Wireshark team |
Initial release | 1998 |
Stable release | 4.4.2[2]
/ 20 November 2024 |
Repository | |
Written in | C, C++, Lua |
Operating system | Cross-platform |
Type | Packet analyzer |
License | GPL-2.0-or-later[3][4] |
Website | www |
Wireshark is a free and open-source packet analyzer. It is used for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communications protocol development, and education. Originally named Ethereal, the project was renamed Wireshark in May 2006 due to trademark issues.[5]
Wireshark is cross-platform, using the Qt widget toolkit in current releases to implement its user interface, and using pcap to capture packets; it runs on Linux, macOS, BSD, Solaris, some other Unix-like operating systems, and Microsoft Windows. There is also a terminal-based (non-GUI) version called TShark. Wireshark, and the other programs distributed with it such as TShark, are free software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.